The invention relates to a linear vibratory conveyor including a utility weight and a counterweight that can be vibratingly moved in opposing directions via a drive unit, the drive unit preferably being arranged in a receiving chamber beneath the utility weight.
Such linear vibratory conveyors transport small and very small components for instance to an assembling machine, where the components are either to be processed or installed. The principle on which such a linear vibratory conveyor works is based on a counterweight and a utility weight, part of which is a transport rail along which the components are moved, being caused to vibrate in opposition to one another so that the components move on the transport rail by micro-jumps. The utility weight and counterweight are each vibratingly connected via corresponding spring elements, primarily leaf springs or leaf spring packets, to the base plate, via which the linear vibratory conveyor is connected to a third article, for instance an assembly table. Normally an electromagnet is used for the drive unit, the magnet core generally being connected by the coil surrounding it to the counterweight and the magnet armature to the utility weight. When alternating voltage is applied to the coil, an alternating magnetic field is created as a function of the voltage frequency and it acts on the armature, which moves freely relative to the magnet core and is thus not connected thereto, the opposing vibrational movement of the two weights ultimately resulting.
The functioning principle is such that when the electromagnet is excited, that is, when the coil is supplied with current, the armature is drawn to or toward the magnet core via the magnetic field that builds up. The utility weight and the counterweight are moved somewhat towards one another, and the spring elements are correspondingly bent. Thus the weights actively move. When the electromagnets cease to be excited, the return is effected solely via the relaxing spring elements. The travel of the electromagnets is limited, however, so that a relatively narrow vibrating amplitude results, which then leads to the mean quantity conveyed being low.